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SET FOR STRIKE

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Volume 16, No. 27

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FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1957

VANCOUVER, B.C. lO¢

Authorised as second class mail by
the Post Office Department, Ottawa

Vancouver Labor Council,
Which decided some months
ago that it would run three
Candidates in the civic election
this year, has endorsed a labor
Platform which its nominees
Will advance in December.

Delegates at Tuesday’s VLC
Meeting approved the follow-
ig program presented by Bill
Black of the political educa-
tion committee:

@ Five years’ residence or
Ownership of propery to qual-
ify for civic office.

@ A _ metropolitan govern-
Ment to include the Lower
Mainland and cover pollution,
fire, sewage, water, parks, po-
lice and roads.

® Revision of municipal tax-
ation and assessment laws.

®@ Public ownership of all
Public utilities,

® City to maintain and op-
€raté the civic airport.

@ A modern plan for roads
and highways to end_ bottle-
necks and a better deal from
Senior governments on arter-
lal highways.

Labor Council sets
civic election aims

@ A low - rental housing
scheme for senior citizens and
those in low-income brackets.

‘

@ A program of slum clear-
ance and rehabilitation.

@ Enlargement of recrea-
tional facilities and park de-
velopment.

@ City to enact a bylaw

stipulating union wages on all
city contracts and service.

* What about
the ‘buccaneers’ ?

..What is Prime Minister
John Diefenbaker going to do
about the U.S. oil companies
hte denounced as “buccaneers”
a few months ago?

Natural gas has still to
come through the Trans-Can-
ada pipeline, but investors
have already made an esti-
mated stock profit of $300,-
691,246.

x

When 34,000 Coast woodworkers walk off the job at 10 a.m. Friday this
week, following a complete breakdown of last-ditch negotiations with operators Wed-
nesday, close to 40,000 workers will be marching on picket lines in British Colum-

bia.

Some 5,500 salmon net fishermen are now in their second week of

action, although a stalemate
in the fish price strike was
broken Wednesday morning
when the fishing companies
proposed a renewal of price
negotiations.

Also on strike ‘are city
electricians, workers at Sim-
mons Mattress and warehouse-
men at Canada Roof Pro-
ducts.

Ready to strike are 11,000
provincial government em-
ployees, who turned thumbs
down on a government propo-
sal for a six percent wage in-

crease by voting 89.2 percent
in favor of strike action.

B.C. Government Employ-

ees Association is giving Prem-
ier W.A.C. Bennett a week
to agree to the setting up of
a board of arbitration to deal
with matters affecting wages
and working conditions which
cannot be agreed upon by both
parties, If the premier fails
to act, a strike deadline will
be announced.

Breakdown of talks in lum-
ber followed a last-minute re-
newal of negotiations between
operators and the IWA brought
about by intervention of Prem-
ier Bennett. But the talks
proved fruitless, and the un-
ion set Friday as a_ strike
deadline.

Vancouver Labor Council
at its Tuesday meeting this
week reiterated its pledge of
full support to the IWA and
all unions which have been
forced — and are being forc-
ed — to take strike action to
win wage demands.

Strike votes have been taken
by nurses in Penticton and
New Westminster.

Hospital employees are also
determined to strike to win
pay hikes this summer if hos-
pital boards continue to re-
ject conciliation board recom-
mendations. Several strike
votes have been taken and
others are in the offing.

strike

Doukhobor children

beaten, say letters

A claim that

“punishment and beating

NELSON, B.C.
of Doukhobor

children held in New Denver is continuing” was made here
this week by members of a Sons of Freedom committee seek-

ing release of the children.

Letters from children confined at New Denver gave details

of the punishment meted out
recently when the children
staged a protest in the gym
and refused to dance for a
group of visitors. The child-
ren were sent to bed, some
were strapped and the next
visiting day with their par-
ents was. cancelled.

One of the girls wrote that
after playing volleyball some
of the girls were taking show-
ers when they were ordered
to return to the gym and give
a dance performance for the
visitors.

See LETTERS

Continued on back page

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“Your tolls are in the way.”

NEWS ITEM: Leading Social Crediters are protest-
ing Premier W. A. C. Bennett’s statement at the
opening of-Oak Street Bridge last Saturday that tolls
would be removed when the bridge is paid for in
12% years. They say this is contrary te their under-
standing of government policy to transfer the tolls
to Deas Island Tunnel when it is completed in 1959.
Bridge tolls place a new charge on Richmond com-

LABOR STANDS FIRM
N WAGE DEMANDS